Bane of Kings reviews Embedded, written by Dan Abnett and published by Angry Robot Books.

“Abnett’s ability to create amazing adventures in any setting makes him a king among Science-Fiction authors… Embedded blazes along with fast-paced action, engaging story, charismatic characters and twists that will leave you stunned! Buy it!” ~The Founding Fields

Now, if you’ve been following this blog for some time, you’ll no doubt be aware that we’ve been eagerly anticipating Embedded’s release, posting stuff like the cover art and the blurb, as well as sample chapters on the blog, and when I finally downloaded a copy from Angry Robot’s Angry Robot Army website – I couldn’t wait to get into it.

Even though I read this on my IPod, I still thoroughly enjoyed the New York Times bestselling author’s latest work, and even though he’s more widely known for his work in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe (With fantastic books like Gaunt’s Ghosts and Horus Rising), Dan Abnett manages to make his own universe completely different from the realms of the grim-dark forty first millennium.

And he does it very well. Using fast paced action, Abnett grabs us in by a hook and doesn’t let us go until the last page, when we’re left only wanting more. He manages to do the world building part to the best of his ability, and doesn’t bog down the storyline with it.

Unlike some stories set in the future, in this universe, Earth is not united under one rule, which I find to be a bit unrealistic as there are many different policies, many, many different viewpoints shared by the people of the world.

 Now then, let’s get on with the plot. The Veteran journalist known as Lex Falk arrives on the planet eighty-six, and to him it looks as though things couldn’t get more boring. However, when a local squabble starts to turn more violent, the military is sent in.

And this, naturally – catches Falk’s attention. However, there’s just one problem. The media are forbidden from approaching the warzone.

There seems to be one way around this problem, and that’s how Falk finds himself embedded inside the head of a combat veteran, Nestor Bloom.  However, when Bloom is killed, Falk must use whatever he can to get back home again.

That’s the basic plot of the novel and overall, I found it to be very engaging. And although the pace is slow at the start, the action kicks off along with the pace dramatically increasing when Falk is chipped into Bloom.

At some points during this novel, I found it to be pretty amusing, and we’re dealt with the three main superpower nations on Earth being locked in a struggle with each other as each countries expand, research, conquer and explore the universe.

Believe me when I say this, you will not want to put it down. I kept saying to myself that I’ll stop at the next chapter, and ended up reading several more after that, this is how enthralling it was.

The characterisation I found to be fantastically done, with information revealed about our heroes that doesn’t detract from the overall storyline.

Embedded doesn’t come without its twists though, as at the end we’re left with a very shocking one indeed, and one that I didn’t see coming – and I don’t think you will, neither.

I could defiantly see this novel becoming a best-seller, as I think any fan of military science fiction should buy this, not just those who like Warhammer 40,000.

This is one of my favourite books that I’ve read this year, defiantly in my top two so far, and is closing in on even my all-time favourite book.

Also, in many of his novels, Abnett is probably well known for dropping entirely new swear words on the reader, my favourite (both from the Gaunt’s Ghosts series) being “Feth” and “Gak”, and this story is no different, introducing the word “Freeking” to the reader, adding another addition to an already colourful line up.

Rating: 4.5/5